


Like a bullet

by nohomies (kameo_chan)



Category: Sucker Punch (2011)
Genre: Drama, Dubious Morality, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-31
Updated: 2011-05-31
Packaged: 2017-10-19 23:00:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/206150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kameo_chan/pseuds/nohomies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Baby Doll decides it's time for the curtain call.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like a bullet

The High Roller looks at her and Baby Doll feels as though she's burning up. She knew this day would come. Had known it even in the beginning when things had still held a glimmer hope, even if she didn't want to. He's impossibly suave, all slicked-back hair and white tuxedo and rugged handsomeness. From the back of the room, the High Roller watches carefully, noting every last little thing about her. And Baby Doll feels like there's a furnace fire burning, burning, burning where her heart used to be.

There is no dancing her way out of this one. No Sweet Pea to save anymore, no Rocket to brighten her day. No Amber, no Blondie and perhaps most achingly, most tellingly, no Wise Man to guide her feet. Madame Gorski is still and silent and doesn't quite meet anyone's eyes. Baby Doll knows it's fear. Fear of Blue, and of the horrible vengeance he'll visit on both of them once he's out of the hospital. The thought sets a curious mix of guilt and satisfaction roiling in her stomach. If only the knife had gone deeper, she thinks. If only it had killed him the same way it had Rocket.

Above her the stage lights burn brightly, almost phantasmagorically. Baby Doll closes her eyes, and begins to dance.

\----

When everything is said and done, the audience members are on their feet. Their clapping is thunderous, almost deafening, and she imagines she can see tears standing in more than one pair of the eyes currently pinned to her like dead butterflies. Baby Doll doesn't care. There is only one person that matters, and it's the High Roller.

It's impossible to see him now, with everyone else standing. But she knows where he was, and his presence is undeniable, even here on the relative safety of the stage. For a moment, everything seems to slow down, to stand still. Madame Gorski beckons her nervously, takes her hand and helps her offstage, leads her to the slaughter.

Everyone is looking, gawking. But this is what she's been waiting for ever since Sweet Pea found her freedom. The High Roller takes her hand in his, and there's an odd prickling sensation, too much warmth too soon. His hand is so much bigger than her own, and when Baby Doll looks up at him, meets his eyes, it's like dying. There's something in his eyes she hasn't seen in a long time.

"This is our Baby Doll. Isn't she wonderful?" Madame Gorski offers.

"She is," the High Roller says, taking her hand and kissing it gently, firmly. And Baby Doll feels, for the first time since being sold to Blue and into the brothel, as though she is real, a person and not a walking, talking sexual commodity.

"My room?" he inquires, and his eyes don't leave hers, don't focus on anything else.

"It is ready," Madame Gorski replies, and out of the corner of her eye, Baby Doll catches her small nod. Once more, Baby Doll closes her eyes. _One two three four five six seven eight nine ten_. And when she opens them, the High Roller is smiling at her as though she's the only person in the world.

\----

"Come with me," he says afterwards. Baby Doll is nestled in the crook of his arm with the sheet wrapped around her slight frame. One of his hands rests lightly on her hip, strokes her skin softly and for one ridiculous and bittersweet moment she thinks of the way her mother had always hugged her back before she had found out that evil wasn't just something you read about in fairy tales.

"You'll be safe." Baby Doll thinks this over; weighs his words. But she knows, just like she knew from the beginning that he would come for her, that he's telling the truth. More than his words, she reads it in his eyes. It's what she saw when she was introduced to him. Kindness. Compassion.

"I won't force you. You can leave as soon as Blue gives you over into my custody. I'll make sure of it." He presses a kiss to her forehead, warm and comforting. "I'll help you. You really do have talent, much more than a brothel will ever allow you to expand upon." Another kiss, to her temple. And then he's looking at her again with eyes much gentler than his appearance could ever account for.

"Let me help you. Do you have family? Or maybe some place you'd like to go?" And as he presses another kiss to the inner corner of her eye, Baby Doll smiles brightly, brilliantly.

"Yes," she says. "Take me to Paradise."

**Author's Note:**

> Now I know a lot of people might disagree with me on this, but I felt that the High Roller was unnecessarily vilified. True, in the brothel-reality he seems like a mega-pimp, but how much of that image comes from Baby Doll herself? Remember, she only heard about the High Roller from the viewpoints of others like Blue and the other girls. So it makes sense that from that viewpoint, the High Roller would seem evil.
> 
> That doesn't fly for me however, if you consider that the doctor assuming the role of the High Roller in the true reality of the psychiatric institute actually seems kind and compassionate towards Baby Doll's plight. And in my view, that kind of sinks the whole lobotomy-equals-rape idea.


End file.
